


A Mess (Happy For You)

by samandbucky



Series: Winterhawk Bingo 2020 [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Barista Natasha Romanov, Barista Sam Wilson, Crushes, Fluff, Jealous Sam Wilson, Jealousy, M/M, Meet-Cute, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Pining, dating app
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:19:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28957059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samandbucky/pseuds/samandbucky
Summary: Sam owns a coffee shop with Natasha. His best friend is Bucky Barnes, who's trying to get back into the dating scene, and when he does, it of course happens to be with someone who Sam has history with.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton/Sam Wilson, Natasha Romanov & Sam Wilson
Series: Winterhawk Bingo 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926502
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7
Collections: Sam Wilson Bingo 2020





	A Mess (Happy For You)

**Author's Note:**

> Square Fill(s): Dating App Meet Cute (WinterhawkBingo) & B2 - Coffee Shop Owner (Sam WIlson Bingo)
> 
> Title from 'A Mess (Happy 4 U)' by Little Mix

“Dude, are you seriously on _grindr_?”

Bucky nearly jumps out of his skin when he hears the sound of Sam’s sudden voice. He looks over and glares at him. “Dude, are you seriously trying to give me a heart attack?”

Sam grins, proud of himself, and slides himself across from Bucky in the booth. “So, grindr?”

Bucky sighs. “I know it’s ridiculous. I only downloaded it so Steve can get off my back about dating,”

“I’m sure he’s only looking out for you,” Sam says.

“I know. But what’s the big deal?” Bucky groans. “I’m perfectly happy not being in a relationship right now, but Steve insists dating will be good for me, or something along those lines. Anyways, I’m only doing this so he can get off my back and leave me alone about dating.”

“It could be good for you, you never know,” Sam agrees. “Have you had any luck yet?”

“Kind of. I’ve been talking to this one guy named Clint,” Bucky says, turning his phone around and showing Sam a picture of the man he’s starting talking to.

Sam freezes for a moment as soon as he recognizes the man in the picture, because he’s definitely seen that guy before, and he’s pretty sure that he had a one night stand with him a couple months ago. Sam hasn’t seen him since that night. Hasn’t thought about him at all, in fact. But, it’s still pretty awkward that Bucky is talking to someone he has history with.

Sam quickly recovers himself before Bucky notices anything off with him, because he doesn’t want to make things awkward between the two of them, and he really doesn’t want to ruin Bucky’s chances with someone when he’s finally talking to someone. “He looks nice. What’s he about?”

“I didn’t wanna scare him off so soon so I haven’t really asked about his personal life yet. He has a dog, named Lucky. He’s also really funny. We can even talk for hours without the conversation dying out-” Bucky looks up at Sam and he frowns when he sees Sam staring at him with raised eyebrows. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Sam lets out a laugh, amused by the situation, because he’s never seen Bucky like this before, where he’s so infatuated by a boy. He’s making the most of this while he can. “Dude, you’re in love!”

“I am _not_ in love,” Bucky argues. “How can I be in love when I haven’t even met the guy yet?”

“People fall in love through dating apps all the time, Buck. You don’t have to meet someone to fall in love. It’s not all about looks, you know?” Sam raises his eyebrows at Bucky.

“Hey Wilson! Stop chatting and get your ass over here! We have a problem!”

Sam looks over and rolls his eyes when he sees Natasha waiting impatiently for him. He looks at Bucky. “Do yourself a favor and never become the owner of a coffee shop. It’s stressful as hell, man,”

Bucky chuckles as Sam gets up from his spot. “Trust me, that’ll never happen,”

~~

Sam doesn’t see Bucky for a couple of days, so he busies himself at the coffee shop.

“Come on Wilson. When are you going to admit to yourself you’re crushing on Barnes?” Natasha asks when they’re in the back room, sorting through some boxes for restocking.

Sam nearly drops the stack of cups that he’s holding, and looks over at Natasha with wide eyes. “Nat, what the hell are you talking about? I’ve never once mentioned anything about a crush-”

“You didn’t have to say anything. Your eyes say it all,” Natasha says.

“What are you? Some kind of love guru?” Sam asks, scoffing. “I don’t have a crush on Barnes.”

“You’re denying it quite defensively,” Natasha points out.

Sam rolls his eyes. “Are you trying to set me up or something?”

“When’s the last time you went out on a date, Sam?” Natasha asks.

“I’m too busy to go on dates,” Sam says as he walks out of the room, arms full of cups.

“That’s a shitty excuse,” Natasha replies, following Sam. “You’re not too busy. You run a _coffee shop_.”

“Which takes up a lot of my time, Nat. I’ve gotta work. Make money. I’ve got bills to pay,” Sam argues. “Dating is the last thing on my mind right now.” He rolls his eyes as soon as he hears the front door ding, because they’re supposed to be closed, but people love to ignore the closed sign. “We’re closed!”

“No you’re not,”

Sam looks over when he hears Bucky’s familiar voice, and instantly drops all of the cups to the floor when he sees that Bucky is with the man from his Grindr.

“Dammit, Sam. You’re picking all of those up!” Natasha groans.

Bucky snorts, and leads the way over to the counter. “You always were a clutz, Wilson,”

“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” The man, Clint, asks, standing beside Bucky as he stares at Sam, clearly trying to remember him.

“No,” Sam replies, almost a little too quickly. “Nope. I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

Bucky raises his eyebrows as he stares at Sam, and glances at Clint, before looking back at Sam. “Anyways, Sam. This is Clint. He’s the uh- date I was telling you about,”

“Ah, so you _were_ telling your friend about me,” Clint says as he smoothly leans against the counter, smirking at Bucky. “You said you hadn’t told anyone.”

“Clint?”

Clint looks up and grins as soon as he sees Natasha standing in the doorway. “Hey Nat!”

“You two know each other?” Sam asks, looking over at Natasha with a frown.

“We’re besties,” Clint says first. “Known each other since we were basically in diapers.”

“Unfortunately for me,” Natasha sighs. “Did you miss the closed sign?” She points towards the door.

“Nope,” Bucky says, grinning. “We saw it clearly. But, we didn’t know where to go so I thought maybe Sammy wouldn’t mind if we hung around here for a little while.”

Sam sighs as he stares at Bucky. Normally he wouldn’t mind Bucky hanging around like this, but now he’s got his date with him, someone that he has history with. So, it’s going to be awkward. “That’s fine, Buck. But, If you’re gonna hang around here, then you’re getting put to work. We’ve got a lot of shit to do,”

Bucky looks over at Clint. “Thoughts?”

“I’m in,” Clint says, looking over at Sam. “Where do we start?”

“Are we getting paid?” Bucky asks.

“Absolutely not,” Natasha scoffs.

“I’ll buy you lunch tomorrow,” Sam says. “Nat, put these guys to work. I’m going to clean this mess.”

“Follow me, boys,” Natasha says, going back into the employee’s only room.

Bucky grins at Clint before they both follow Natasha into the back.

Sam groans, running a hand over his face. “Get your shit together Wilson,” he mumbles, before walking over to the door and locking it, not wanting anymore unexpected visitors. It’s too late for that. He turns and jumps when he sees Clint standing in front of him. “What the hell, man?”

“You were lying,” Clint says. “I know exactly where I know you from. Six months ago. We-”

“Don’t need to bring that up right now,” Sam says, walking past Clint. “What happened back then was a one night stand. You’ve clearly moved on. You’ve got Buck now.”

“I was all for seeing you again. You’re the one who left,” Clint says, raising his eyebrows at Sam.

“I don’t have time to do relationships right now. I’ve got more important things to worry about,” Sam says. He looks over at Sam and stares at him. “Are you just going to stand there, man? Or are you going to help me clean these cups up?”

Clint sighs, and walks over to the mess of cups. “Maybe you shouldn’t be so clumsy,”

“It’s your fault that I dropped them,” Sam grumbles as he starts picking the cups up.

“How is it my fault?” Clint asks, scoffing. “You’re the one who dropped the damn cups!”

“You showed up unexpectedly at my shop!” Sam argues.

“Well, it’s not my fault you’re attracted to me still,” Clint retorts.

“I am not still attracted to you, thank you very much,” Sam huffs, standing back on his feet and then placing the cups on the counter. “In fact, I haven’t thought about you in-”

“Uh, guys?”

Sam looks over and freezes when he sees Bucky standing there with a frown on his face. “Dammit,”

“You know each other?” Bucky asks, looking down at Clint.

“Hardly,” Sam replies quickly. “The only thing that I know about this guy is that he’s an asshole.”

“Oh, _I’m_ the asshole?” Clint asks, standing up as well. “I’m not the ones who leave their dates after fu-”

“It wasn’t a date!” Sam exclaims, glaring at Clint. “It was a one night stand!” He looks over at Bucky. “Honestly, of all the people in the world… you had to pick this guy to date?”

Bucky shrugs his shoulders. “He seemed nice enough to me,”

“Sorry, Buck. This must be awkward for you,” Clint says, placing a hand on Bucky’s shoulder.

“No, not really. I mean, I don’t care that you’ve slept with my best friend. That’s in the past. Just as long as you know that you’re mine now,” Bucky says, grabbing a hold of Clint’s shirt and pulling him into a kiss.

Sam rolls his eyes as soon as it happens. He turns and heads to the bathroom, because he can’t stand to watch his crush, his best friend, stand there and kiss someone else.

When Bucky finally pulls away from the kiss, he looks over and he frowns slightly when he sees that Sam is no longer there. He frowns. “Uh oh,” he says, stepping away from Clint. “Sam?”

“Go,” Clint says. “Go find him. I’ll go see if Natasha wants any help.”

Bucky nods, before rushing to go find Sam. He finds him in the employee’s bathroom.

“Employee’s only,” Sam says, not even looking up to see who has walked into the bathroom. He’s currently standing in front of the mirror, gripping onto the edge of the sink tightly.

“If it bothers you that much, I won’t date him,” Bucky says, walking into the bathroom.

Sam rolls his eyes. “I don’t care that you’re dating him,” he lies quickly.

“Well something’s clearly bothering you,” Bucky argues, crossing his arms against his chest. “Come on, Sammy. Why won’t you just talk to me? We always talk to each other.”

“Because I-!” _love you_ , is what Sam wants to finish that sentence. But, it’s too late for that. Sam scoffs, and shakes his head. “I think maybe you should go.” He looks away from Bucky.

“You’re kicking me out?” Bucky asks, offended. When Sam doesn’t say anything, he scoffs, and storms out of the bathroom. “Clint, let’s go! We’re leaving!”

Sam backs up until his back hits against the wall. He takes a deep breath as he stares at the door with wide eyes. He and Bucky never fight like this, and he prays that this isn’t going to ruin their friendship, because Sam’s been content not being able to date Bucky. But now, it’s messy.

A moment later, Natasha walks into the bathroom with a frown on her face.

“I don’t need a lecture, Nat. Please,” Sam begs.

“Do you wanna go get a drink?” Natasha asks, surprising Sam. “We can finish this tomorrow.”

Sam lets out a sigh of relief and walks over to Natasha, feeling himself calm down. “You’re the best, seriously. I really should give you employee of the month or something,”

“I really don’t want employee of the month, Wilson. Although, I wouldn’t complain about a raise,” Natasha says as they walk out of the bathroom together.

“Okay, let’s not push our luck,” Sam replies jokingly.

Sam doesn’t really see Buck over the next few weeks, nor Clint. As always, he focuses on running his coffee shop, and work. He never goes out, and he can feel himself falling into a state of depression, and he knows that Natasha is worried about him, which is the last thing he wants.

It's late Friday night when Natasha brings Bucky and Clint to the coffee shop, after telling Clint that she wanted to hang out with them. Both boys assumed she meant going to the club or to see a movie.

“Nat, what are we doing here?” Bucky asks, when they get inside.

Natasha shuts the door behind her, and locks the door. “Sam is depressed,”

Bucky scoffs. “Sam got himself into this mess,”

“You’re supposed to be his best friend,” Natasha argues, pointing at Bucky.

“Sam kicked me out,” Bucky says, throwing his arms up. “I was trying to talk to him, and he kicked me out! For no reason! What kind of best friend does that?”

“There was a reason, actually, and you’re just too oblivious to figure it out,”

“Dammit,” Clint suddenly groans. “It’s so obvious.”

“Oh, I’m glad you’re finally catching on,” Natasha says, rolling her eyes.

“What’s going on?” Bucky asks, frowning slightly as he looks over at Clint.

“Sam was jealous,” Clint informs him. “I’m not sure of who. But, that’s why he kicked you out.”

“Why would Sam be jealous?” Bucky asks, even more confused.

“Because he’s in love with his best friend,”

Bucky jumps at the sudden voice, looks over to see Sam standing there. “Sam?” He takes a deep breath. He hasn’t seen Sam in over three weeks, and he wishes he had been there for his friend. Sam obviously hasn’t been sleeping well, probably hasn’t been taking care of himself. “Wh- What do you mean?”

“Oh my God. You’re driving me crazy,” Clint groans, pushing Bucky towards Sam. “He’s in love with you!”

Bucky looks at Clint with wide eyes, before looking back at Sam. “Sam, that’s not true, is it?”

“I wish I could say it wasn’t true,” Sam mumbles. “But unfortunately for both of us, it is. You have no idea how hard I pushed my feelings down, to ignore them, but I couldn’t. Then you started dating Clint, someone who I already have history with. It just… became messy, which is exactly what I didn’t want.”

“Sam,” Bucky frowns. “You should have said something to me sooner.”

“And do what, Buck? Mess up your relationship with Clint? Hell no. Friends don’t do that to each other. That’s why I kicked you out, because I didn’t want to say something that I regret,” Sam explains.

“Look, you all clearly love each other. So just, kiss and make up,” Natasha says, and she slips out of the coffee shop before anyone can say anything to her.

“Well, this isn’t awkward at all,” Clint mumbles.

“It doesn’t have to be awkward though,” Bucky says, reaching over to grab Clint’s hand, and then he looks back over at Sam and takes a deep breath. “Natasha’s right, and… I think we can make this work.”

“What? Like, all three of us? Are you insane, Bucky?” Sam asks. “I’m not gonna come between you and Clint. So, you can forget about it. It’s fine. I’ll be totally fine. I’m perfectly happy-”

Clint rolls his eyes, and looks at Bucky as Sam continues to rant. “Buck, please. May I?”

Bucky smirks, and nods. “Absolutely,” he lets go of Clint’s hand, and watches as Clint marches up to Sam and pulls him into a passionate kiss, instantly shutting Sam up.

Sam pulls away a moment later and takes deep breaths as he stares at Clint, who only smiles at him with a stupid, goofy smile. Sam groans, because he wants this, he really does. “Alright. _Alright_. I think we can make this work, but we have a lot to talk about. Yes?” He looks over at Bucky.

“Duh,” Bucky says. “We can’t just jump into a three-way relationship and call it a day.”

“You would do something like that though,” Sam says, smirking when Bucky glares at him.

“You are the worst, Sam Wilson,” Bucky whines. “The _worst_!”


End file.
